Do what (you think) the rich will do: Inequality and belief heterogeneity in public good provision

Abstract

Beliefs about others' cooperativeness are among the strongest determinants of cooperative behaviours. Beliefs about different others, however, are not necessarily uniform, nor necessarily related to past behaviours: different expectations about different others might solely originate from differences in observed individual characteristics. Finally, not all such beliefs need drive conditional behaviour alike. In an experimental public good game with heterogeneous endowments, I find that rich subjects are expected to cooperate more by both rich and poor individuals, and that behaviours of both the rich and poor significantly correlate only with beliefs about the rich. I further find that an intervention aimed at downplaying the salience of heterogeneity has no impact on neither beliefs nor cooperation. I conclude with implications for information dissemination about uncooperative behaviour in the mass media and avenues for further research.

People weigh salaries more than ratios in judgments of income inequality, fairness, and demands for redistribution

“…Our results contribute to the growing discussion about the psychological understanding of economic inequality by ordinary people (Barr & Miller, 2020;Chambers et al, 2014;Engel et al, 2020;Gimpelson & Treisman, 2018;Kiatpongsan & Norton, 2014;Kuziemko et al, 2017;Martinangeli, 2021). This research has mostly focused on CEOworker pay ratios as a driver of people's perceptions of inequality (Benedetti & Chen, 2018;Kiatpongsan & Norton, 2014;Mohan et al, 2018).…”

The Influence Premium of Monetary Rank

“…To the best of our knowledge, this paper adds the first evidence of the direct nexus between monetary rank and influence over others' behaviours free of both the cultural and individual confounds surrounding it (Cook, 1975;Ridgeway, 1991;Stewart and Moore Jr, 1992;Weber, 2001;Fehr, 2018) to the experimental evidence of the impact of rank on own and others' behaviours (e.g. Nelissen and Meijers, 2011;Kuziemko et al, 2014;Martinangeli and Windsteiger, 2020;Martinangeli, 2021;Rockenbach et al, 2021;Martinangeli and Windsteiger, 2022). 2 Receiving advice is ubiquitous in decision making.…”

(Mis)perceiving cooperativeness

“…A similarly conflicting picture emerges on the level of perceived cooperativeness. Some experiments find that wealthy participants are perceived to be more trustworthy and cooperative [ 41 , 42 ], while at the same time, people seem to systematically underestimate the generosity of the extremely rich [ 43 ].…”